Most women were satisfied (34%) or highly satisfied (60%) with the quality of care, although the degree of cooperation between diabetes specialists and gynaecologists was considered sometimes unsatisfactory. In order to optimize maternal and foetal outcomes, educational PKC412 projects and improved communication between patients
and the healthcare provider team are recommended.”
“Objective: To determine whether autophagy contributes to the pathogenesis of degenerative disc disease (DDD) or retards the intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration, and investigate the possible relationship between compression-induced autophagy and intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in nucleus pulposus (NP) cells in vitro.
Methods: The autophagosome and autophagy-related markers were used to explore the role of autophagy in rat NP cells under compressive stress, which were measured directly by electronic microscopy, monodansylcadaverine (MDC) staining, immunofluorescence, western blot, and indirectly by analyzing the impact of pharmacological inhibitors of autophagy such as 3-methyladenine
(3-MA) and chloroquine (CQ). And the relationship between autophagy and apoptosis was investigated by Annexin-Wpropidium iodide (PI)-fluorescein staining. In addition, ROS were measured to determine whether these factors are responsible for the development of compression-induced autophagy.
Results: Our results indicated that rat NP cells activated autophagy in response to the same strong apoptotic stimuli that triggered apoptosis by compression. Autophagy buy SP600125 and apoptosis were interconnected and coordinated in rat NP cells exposed to compression stimuli. Compression-induced autophagy was closely related to intracellular ROS production.
Conclusions: Enhanced degradation of damaged components of NP cells by autophagy may be a crucial survival response against mechanical overload, and extensive autophagy may trigger autophagic cell AZD2171 mw death. Regulating autophagy and reducing the generation
of intracellular ROS may retard IVD degeneration. (C) 2013 Osteoarthritis Research Society International. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Objective: To translate and validate the ‘Sinhala’ language version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer head-and-neck cancer-specific health-related quality-of-life questionnaire module, the QLQ-H&N35, for use in Sri Lanka.
Methods: Psychometric testing assessed the hypothesized scale structure, scale reliability, construct validity and acceptability of the translated version of the QLQ-H&N35 in a consecutive series of 196 newly diagnosed head-and-neck cancer patients, recruited from tertiary-care oncology treatment centres in Sri Lanka.
Results: Compliance was high (97.5%), although nearly 40% of patients required assistance with completion of the questionnaire. Twenty-four sexually inactive patients declined to answer one or both items of the sexuality scale.